All Characters are Imaginary. This is the intriguing title of Rituparno Ghosh’s new film in Bangla. In Bengali, the original title is Shawb Choritro Kalponik. Undeterred by three of his directorial films Khela, Sunglass and The Last Lear lying in cold storage till the time of this write-up, Rituparno Ghosh finished shooting his new Bengali film recently with Prosenjit, Bipasha Basu, Paoli Dam and Jishu Sengupta featuring in the principal roles. The film’s USP is that Bipasha Basu is featuring in her first film in Bangla, her mother tongue. Just when everyone has been used to Bipasha’s sexy image on screen and off it as she shows her shapely self in sizzling style in film after film from Jism to Dhoom 2 to Omkara to Race, hotting it up with all those screen heroes with rippling muscles and sexy chutzpah, for the role of Radhika, she goes fully sari-clad, projecting the sedate image of a Bengali wife.
What made the Bollywood-star savvy Rituparno bank on Bipasha to play the female lead after having worked with top bracket stars from Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan to Ajay Devgan and Jaya Bachchan? “I took Bipasha for the role of Radhika in my film not because she is a Bollywood star, or is Bipasha, but because the role fits her to a T. The new look I have given her is also to do with the character she has played and not for its own sake,” he explained. He had met Bipasha at a Mumbai function where he decided to narrate part of the story to her. “Though she said ‘yes’, she had her doubts about delivering the goods because of the precise enunciation of dialogues about which she was not too sure. But she relented when I assured her that everything would fall in place. And at the end of it all, I can happily sit back and say, everything did fall in place, and the credit goes to my entire team,” added Rituparno.
 “I
was toying with the idea of doing a Bengali film
for the past three years. There had been talks
with several filmmakers. Rituda was one of them.
The decision was also taking time because I had
problems with my dates due to my Hindi projects
and I did not want to do anything halfway. When
Rituda told me that he would try and complete
the shooting in one schedule, my mind was made
up. I requested him to do my costumes himself
and he has done a wonderful job. I am so happy
about my look in the film,” butted in Bipasha,
looking beautiful in a bright red sari, bindiand
ethnic jewellery, a far cry from her screen image
in Dhoom 2 or Corporate.
The story of Shawb Choritro Kalponik,
penned by Ghosh himself, is about Radhika, the
character Bipasha has portrayed in the film. Radhika
is an ordinary Bengali housewife who has lived
away from her home state for some time. She comes
back to Kolkata after her husband Indranil goes
missing, in search of her roots as she is basically
from Kolkata. Indranil was professionally an engineer
but a poet by choice. Radhika is introduced to
Shekhar, a photographer, when she comes to Kolkata.
Her search for her roots is also a search for
little slices of her husband she did not know
that she tries to discover through his poetry.
The film thus, is soaked with the romance and
the lyricism of poetry. The film follows Radhika
on her journey that transcends the geographical
boundaries of going from one city to another,
to enter into an introspective journey to re-discover
herself within the city she once belonged to,
an emotional journey to trace the finer nuances
and shades of her relationship with her husband,
and an investigative journey into things about
her husband she did not know about. Shawb
Choritro Kalponik is more of a metaphorical
journey of all these journeys put together. Prosenjit
plays Indranil and Jishu Sengupta plays Shekhar.
She begins to understand him through his writings,
including his dream muse who does not exist except
in Indranil’s imagination and his poetry
and discovers him all over again. Shawb Charitro
Kalpanik shows how Radhika discovers his
imaginary muse from his poems who spurred him
on to write poetry. Pauli Dam plays this role.
Shooting began last December at Aurora Studios and ended within a month because of Bipasha’s dates in Mumbai. The film is being produced under the banner of Big Motion Pictures with music by 21 Grams Band. Arghya Kamal Mitra is editing the film, Indranil Ghosh has done the production design and Saumik Haldar has photographed the film. The film tries to explore and expose, through these journeys, truths, good and bad, ugly and beautiful, about life in general, the lives of Bipasha and Indranil and finally, the mutations that begin in Bipasha’s life when her husband goes missing.
“I am happy to have created for Bipasha, the kind of look I had conceived for Radhika and she has carried it off very well. The little resemblances between Bipasha the actress and Radhika, the character she portrayed helped her vest the character with credibility and made it easier for her to perform because of the common points of identification,” said Rituparno. In the film, Radhika comes to Kolkata from a distant city. Bipasha also came to Kolkata to shoot for a Bangla film. One could call this ‘a return to roots’ if one wished to.
 “I
have never played a character that comes even
remotely close to Radhika’s. Though the
character is slightly older than me, I tried to
slip into Radhika’s mould in the best possible
way I could as an actress. Rituda chose me to
do this role precisely because of these similarities
between Radhika and myself. I do not think he
would have asked me to do this film had these
not been there. The character demanded tremendous
intensity. It was an extremely challenging role,”
added Bipasha.
About her first experience of working in Tollygunge, Bipasha says that she would first like to shower praises on her director Rituparno. “He can explain what he expects of you in precise detail. He has a complete idea of how his characters will walk, talk, what they will wear, so that the emotions come across the way he has planned them. He knows the characters like the back of his palm. From the ones that I have seen of his many films, I saw his attention to detailing for every element from production design to costumes to make-up to dialogue to everything. The next in line is Prosenjit or Boombada as we call him in Tollygunge. He is warm, extremely helpful and does not wear any starry airs at all though he has been number one for two decades here. He is a brilliant actor and never allows you to feel uneasy when you are working with him. My comfort levels on the sets were very good. I had the opportunity of talking in Bangla all the time. I made friends with everyone, Jishu, and Paoli who I motivated to stick to a fitness regime. Shooting was lots of fun,” she sums up as we keep our fingers crossed that this film at least, is not relegated into cold storage the way Rituparno’s recent films have been.
Shoma A Chatterji is a freelance journalist
who specialises in cinema and gender. She has
won the National Award for Best Writing on Cinema
twice.
|
